Clear your mind with sex and violence? Don tells Yael about the surprising results of some research. D: I've decided that from here on out I'm going to watch only television programs that are violent or sexually explicit. No more Animal Psychic or Wedding Story for me.

Y: Why on earth is that?

D: Because I'm tired of being bombarded every second of every day with advertising. I think that brand names and their jingles must take up half the space in my brain.

Y: And so you want to fill that space with images of violence and sex instead? Or do you think that violent and sexually explicit programs advertise less?

D: Neither. I do know, however, that advertisements that run during violent or sexually explicit programs are less likely to lodge themselves in a viewer's memory than advertising that runs during other kinds of programs. That is, I'm less likely to be able to recall those brands immediately after the show, as well as the next day.

Y: No matter what form the advertisement itself takes? I mean, what if a violent commercial airs during a violent program? Would you be more likely to remember the brand then?

D: Nope. Viewers are about twenty percent less likely to remember a brand, however it is advertised, when it airs during a violent or sexually explicit program. Generally brands that advertise with violence are about twenty-seven percent less memorable than brands that advertise in sexual or more neutral forms. What it boils down to is that sex and violence do not sell after all.